Can you learn from a Knucklehead?

Absolutely. The hardest lesson to learn in a creative life is to recognize that learning doesn't take sides. Even knuckleheads teach. They can teach us in a useful negative way, by showing us the bright light of what to avoid, what one should never attempt or do creatively. But there are those disturbing moments when the universe slaps you upside your silly head and gives an idiot a burning moment of creative revelation. Scary moments for they don't always know what they do.

I had a old high school football coach who taught an uninspired film class which mostly accommodated his need to snooze in a darkened room. He was truly a challenged individual and needless to say a waste of teaching flesh but he did display the first independent animated short film I had ever had the pleasure to see. This nightmare of a educator gave me the first breath of creative fresh air and forever changed my life. I am forever YIKED, bamboozled, and grateful.

So pay attention to the curveballs this universe so skillfully drills at your unexpecting head.

"IT doesn't WORK!"

I have been through many circumstances where a client makes a suggestion which is counter to the creative in their own spot and directly in conflict with what you are trying to produce for them. You politely respond, "I don't think that will work" and if you are smart enough, you will be able to explain why. (If you want to play the "Ego Card" you laugh, tell them to "shut up", or just say "no"). Hopefully after your explanation the suggestion has been tucked away in the forever forgotten pile of crappy ideas. If not, you have opened the Pandora's Box of creative issues. Are you just not talented enough to make it work? Are you too stupid to understand who you are working for? Are you not creative enough to defend your position? Not good. You do not want to be defending your creative, it should be the only absolute in the room. You ARE the creative.

As a young animator/producer, I used to think you could make nearly anything work, that was my job in a sense, give the client what he/she wanted no matter how ridiculous it seemed at the time. I was a young "MAKE IT WORK" Tim Gunn wannabe. Sometimes to my surprise it was actually successful, the client was happy that I used their idea and made it pretty as a butterfly just for them. But invariably, I would not be satisfied one iota, I would see their suggestion as a large nail in my creative tire. I almost never put those jobs on a demo reel and surprisingly most of the times the client did not return for the next offering. Big HMMMM.

The problem is this, a bad creative idea is a bad creative idea and it is your job to make sure those ideas don't screw the pooch. How else can you prove your expertise? In my crankcase old age, I actually suggest the "Ego Card" tell them to back off, that you were hired for the creative not them. Do it in an entertaining way, if possible, nothing like laughing like an idiot while they stare confused. Most of the times they want the outlandish, the "wack job", it is what the corporate world expects of us. But beware, make sure it is a creative difference and not a business difference, the client has a right to portray their product and brand how they wish. Know the boundary and understand the risk.

Yes, you can lose jobs this way and you cannot overplay this hand or you will be known through out the industry as some pariah or worse, a prima donna. Maintain balance, understand that you do not own creative thought, but be in control of what you have been hired to do. And certainly understand that living the creative life is all about risk, in and out and all about.

How do you prove you are an expert?

Years ago, expertise was a given. If you had the equipment, you must be an expert or at least you were in competition with experts. Certainly this statement is not entirely true, but it's not 50 mile walk backwards either. For example, back in the day, post-production was handled by firms with very expensive equipment. Millions of dollars worth of video technology, decks, ranks, massive color correctors, and editing equipment. You hire technicians and editors with vast experience in film and video. Now a retard art director comes into a post house with his Mac and Final Cut and shows the editor his rough cut. It's happening. Now the editor is forced to tell the knucklehead art director that his work sucks and he (happened to be a "he" in the version I know) should just let the editor do what the editor knows how to do. What the hell? If that ain't a screwed up situation. So if you are a pin head art director who thinks you have any talent in editing, then edit your kids home movies. Don't show your version of a commercial to anyone, not the client, not the creative director and certainly not the editor. Let a pro do it. When you have edit 10 years of your kids opening Xmas presents while Grandma swears like a sailor in the background, then maybe open your mouth, but keep your laptop shut.

The toughest question for many professionals now is how do you prove you are an expert. All the damn tools, now fit on a laptop. Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, After Effects, etc. A nerd knows all the terms, hell they created this stuff. The quality of work is all over the place due to the internet due in part to the availability of cheapo video technology. The only solution I can come up with is be the best at what you do, "be original and be you" and hope they don't create a program to duplicate it.